Thanks to Ana-Isabel Cantera, our first temporary hire made possible by a Canada Summer Jobs contribution, we are now on Instagram! Though Ana was with us only 9 weeks, her contributions were many. We are set to support two generous Vanier college students who responded to the call captured in the posters Ana created. Both Health Science students were seeking social and community involvement via Vanier’s S.T.A.R. Program (Student Transcript Activity Record). We will share more about their contributions in the next issue!
Regarding our investments with and for youth/young adults and interfaith spaces, we embrace opportunities to model and multiply ways and forums for connection. We draw meaning from the findings of Cardus, “a non-partisan think tank dedicated to clarifying and strengthening, through research and dialogue, the ways in which society’s institutions can work together for the common good” (text drawn from their mission statement). In their November 2022 research paper entitled The Shifting Landscape of Faith in Canada, on page 33, they report that “Leaders observed that young people want to be open and authentic about their faith, whether positive or negative, and are more accepting of others’ religious choices, even if they disagree with them.”
We also draw from the CHSSN’s findings in relation to visible minority status among English-speaking youth. Its January 2022 Report on the Health and Social Services Priorities of English-speaking Communities in Quebec, within its chapter on Vulnerable English-speaking populations, regarding youth, one can read on page 8: “While 29.8% of all English-speaking Quebecers are members of a visible minority community, this rate is exceeded by English-speaking youth (35.1%).” and “While 35.1% of English-speaking youth are visible minority members, the rate is 12.6% for French-speaking youth.” Though based on 2016 Canadian census data, regarding the Age Structure of the English Catholic community in the Montreal census metropolitan area (CMA), the 2021 census data presented by Statistics Canada to our 2023 AGM participants captured the fact that “The racialized English Catholic community is younger than the rest of the English community.”
In summary, we are excited about learning from youth and are engaged in starting with a parish-based conjointly designed pilot project.